


The Jasmine Dragon comes to Gravity Falls

by mikawritesthings



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Crossover, Cryptids, Multi, Post-Canon, aang is a weird nature spirit, might not even finish this, who knows - Freeform, will add more characters as this goes along
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2020-11-07 17:02:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20820752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikawritesthings/pseuds/mikawritesthings
Summary: Now that Zuko is 18 years old, his dad has decided to send him off to a summer job: working at his uncle's tea shop in a town called Gravity Falls.





	1. Zuko's Journal- June 15th, 2018

**Author's Note:**

> So, I recently rewatched ATLA... and this AU just kinda happened. It's mostly me reflecting on characters who I grew up with, and the ways they might have grown up with me.

Today is the first day of my long, long summer in hell.

Remember how Dad told me I needed to get a job now that I’m 18? Well, he decided the best place for me to work would be Uncle Iroh’s new tea shop, the Jasmine Dragon. (Just the name is cheesy enough to make me lactose intolerant.) It’s here in the middle of nowhere, a town in Oregon called Gravity Falls. I don’t understand what the appeal of tea is to the people here, but business is booming. Unfortunately.

Why couldn’t Uncle Iroh just have retired to some cozy beach town like other old guys his age do? The weather would be way more appropriate for those god-awful Hawaiian shirts he always wears. Maybe he’ll do that if the Jasmine Dragon goes under.

The worst thing about being here is that Azula and her mean girl squad decided they weren’t interested in tagging along. (Dad never told her to get a job. Typical.) Now there’s nobody here I know who’s actually my age.

Shit, I hear Iroh calling. Gotta go.


	2. New Customers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two passers-by roll in to Gravity Falls: a brother and sister with mysteries to solve. Am I talking about the Pines twins, or Sokka and Katara? Yes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uh, here's this thing. Whatever it is.

“The Jasmine Dragon? That’s a little out of place.”

Sokka frowns at the new storefront across the street, leaning back against his car. Amongst the mattress stores and greasy spoons of downtown Gravity Falls, a tea shop with a wooden sign displaying a giant hand-painted dragon feels much more Portland.

His kid sister (technically only a year younger), Katara, looks thoughtful. “What if it’s a front?”

“For what?” Sokka asks. “Does this look like the kind of town the yakuza would be hiding out in?”

“Well, no,” Katara admits. “None of these towns for the past hundred miles have.”

“What kind of towns did I expect, anyway, going on a road trip tracking DB Cooper’s trail?” Katara thinks to herself. She mostly did this on her brother’s suggestion; they were only a summer away from Sokka going off to college at Reed, and she wanted to make him happy.

“Let’s check it out,” Katara says.

Sokka sighs. He’s much more of a coffee person. “I’ll just get the most caffeinated thing they have.”

The inside is beautifully decorated. There are artful flower arrangements on each table, the walls are covered with watercolor paintings of fish, and the counter has little shelves displaying decorative jars of tea leaves. Definitely out of place.

While Katara goes to the counter to order, Sokka slumps into an armchair. His eyes wander to another pair of siblings at a nearby table: a boy and a girl, about his age. Both have mousy brown hair and pale skin; their faces are almost identical. The boy is dressed like a Marty McFly who went on a hiking trip, and the girl is wearing a comically oversized, rainbow-colored sweater. Sokka can hear some of their conversation right now.

“...I know everything’s calmed down since Weirdmageddon, but I swear there’s something new in Gravity Falls,” says the boy. He’s got some kind of fancy leatherbound journal open on the table. The journal looks old, the pages covered in scribbled notes and sketches.

“You mean besides this place?” says the girl. A mischievous grin crosses her face. “And _ Zuko _?”

“Yeah,” says the boy, oblivious to whatever his sister was talking about. “There’s no mention of it in the journals, but I saw a human figure in the woods last night.”

“Bigfoot?” Sokka mutters, mostly to himself.

The boy seems to have heard Sokka. “Bigfoot doesn’t have a glowing arrow on his head.”

Now Sokka is interested. The entire idea behind this trip was to retrace the steps of an unsolved mystery. Finding a shiny new unsolved mystery is just two for the price of one.

Sokka gestures towards himself. “The name’s Sokka, by the way.”

The boy nods. “I’m Dipper, and this is my sister Mabel.”

Mabel shoots finger guns Sokka’s way. “Welcome to Gravity Falls!”

A voice comes from behind. “Are you talking about the ghost?”

Sokka whips around. The source of the voice is another boy his age, and oh no.

_ He’s hot _.

He has amber-colored eyes, one of them obscured by a rugged burn scar. He has a shaggy haircut that frames his face perfectly. His body is--

“Sokka?”

Katara’s voice snaps Sokka back to reality. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Mabel giving him a thumbs-up.

“Um, here’s your gunpowder green tea and your London fog,” says the mysterious scarred stranger. He’s holding a steaming mug in each hand, his gaze directed into the middle distance as if eye contact is hard for him.

Sokka has no idea what the aforementioned drinks are, but he accepts one of the mugs anyway.

“Zuko was just telling me about this,” says Katara, settling into an armchair across from Sokka. “He says Gravity Falls has a lot of unsolved mysteries?”

For a brief moment, the twins exchange a weird look. “Something like that,” Dipper says.

There’s a minute of small talk. Sokka learns a few things: the twins are in town for the summer visiting their great-uncle (or “grunkle”), Zuko is working a summer job here, Dipper is kind of an amateur paranormal investigator, Mabel once punched a bird to death.

Suddenly, Mabel’s eyes light up. “I know! Why don’t we all go check out the ghost together?”

Katara gives Sokka a look that says _ “How long were we planning on staying here?” _ Sokka responds with a look that says _ “As long as it takes to find this ghost.” _

Zuko tries his best to sound cool and nonchalant with a simple “Yeah, that sounds interesting.” As if he’s not about to explode with excitement. Zuko has been an avid fan of Ghost Adventures since he was a kid, and this is his first chance to interact with people who aren’t over 65. Two birds, one stone.

It's gonna be a great summer.


	3. Let's Bust Some Ghosts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang heads off to search for a glowy ghost-cryptid-thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! This fic isn't dead! I was feeling motivated to try & write a bit more for it, so please accept this humble chapter. Minor CW for gender dysphoria.

The five of them meet that evening, in a patch of woods neighboring some tourist trap called the Mystery Shack. The twins have already informed the other three that their friend Soos owns the place, so he’ll be okay with them “looking for that alien-ghost-cryptid-thingy.”

Zuko is still very much hyped about the ghost, but he honestly wasn’t sure how to go about preparing himself for busting it. He just brought his phone, wallet, and a flashlight, but looking at the amount of gear everyone else brought is making him kind of nervous. Sokka has a backpack full to the brim with specialized ghost-busting gear, all of which, he proclaims, was built in his very own garage. Katara has a massive first-aid kit shoved into her satchel, which she introduces to the group with a pointed glance towards Sokka. Dipper has the same leatherbound tome from earlier under his arm, and Mabel proudly displays her rainbow-colored fanny pack full of snacks. And her grappling hook.

In a few minutes, the gang is off to bust a alien-ghost-cryptid-thingy.

The woods are quiet here, peaceful. The ambient sound of wind shaking the treetops and leaf litter crunching underfoot soothes Zuko’s ears. Maybe a little too quiet; his spidey-senses, such as they are, have learned to recognize awkward silences. But the silence is quickly broken when Dipper sidles up to him.

“I’m just going around the group for past experiences with the paranormal,” he explains. “Part of my research is to compile accounts of--”

“Nerrrrrrrd stuffffffff,” stage-whispers Mabel’s voice from over Zuko’s shoulder. He jumps in spite of himself; he hadn’t noticed her.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that,” Zuko says to Mabel, maybe with more of an edge than he intended.

Sokka, seemingly having caught up to listen in on this conversation, gives Mabel a knowing look. “What is this, Nerdsfeed Unsolved? Or is it more The Magnus Nerdchives? Or even… uh… Nerd...busters…?” He looks unsatisfied with that last pun. “Eh. I’ll workshop it.”

Mabel gives him a fist bump anyway.

Zuko tries to think of an answer to Dipper’s implied question. “Uh… My uncle is always talking about these old legends he’s heard. Of magic and… the four elements and stuff. I’m not explaining it very well.”

“My gran-gran says she saw a Bigfoot back in Alaska when she was little,” says Sokka. “And when she was eleven, Katara saw a ghost pretty much every other day.”

“That’s not saying anything. Every girl sees ghosts all the time when she’s eleven,” Katara says, not even glancing at her brother.

“Not  _ every  _ girl,” Zuko mutters, feeling suddenly conscious of the two layers of sports bra under his shirt.

For a strange, hair-raising moment, Dipper gives Zuko an odd look. An unspoken recognition, a you’re-like-me feeling, passes between the two. At least, that’s what Zuko parses it as.

“Yeah, Katara,” says Sokka, “I think seeing ghosts at age eleven is mostly a  _ you _ thing.”

It’s at that moment that a beacon of light shoots up from the ground.


End file.
